User reviews

"Guwahati Diaries" is a contemporary Assamese film portraying ambitious life of Guwahatians. The film open up with stop motion like fast-paced shoot of glorious Guwahati city, and takes us on a journey of unexpected realisation of modern city life. Although the characters and affairs of the film are influenced by modernity, but somehow it lacked the depth while narrating the scene. The character of the musician played by Arghadeep Baruah, was seen striving for success, forgiveness and a personal identity. Likewise, the former stage-actor played by Urmila Mahanta, the housewife played by Barsha Rani Bishaya, and the corporate victim played by Naaz Sultana, somehow connected through thoughts and struggle of a male chauvinism. Stargazing the idea of a dream city and perspectives of the characters are hyped in few scenes, which left a grey spot in this vibrant display of lust, hope and ambition. Throughout the film, the character of Udy, played by Udayan Duarah kept igniting the flame of a common man with big goals, in a city like Guwahati. Wheres character of Ravi is crucial to understand the metamorphic human mind, that tends to seek ego in a relationship. This Assamese film could be differentiated from the rest with its culmination point, which seemed to start before interval. Guwahati Diaries attempted for an optimistic climax, with the rising suspense of societal dilemma and falling action of union and forgiveness between the characters. The film has also overexposed the usage of alcohol and/or cigarette, which reflects the dark side of mental agony or pressure. The symbolism of diaries is somehow brought up cleverly by the filmmaker, which makes it worth the watch.

Trigger Warnings for the film: Alcohol/Cigarette consumption, Suicidal, Domestic Violence, Inappropriate for children aged 13 or below.

The movie opens with a powerful monologue by an equally powerful actress Urmila Mahanta. Urmila managed to capture the screen in every frame. Barasha has delivered probably one of the best performance of her career. Naaz has one of the freshest face and incredibly natural acting style. Doesn't seem like a debut performance at all. Argha deep is so refreshing and a delight to watch. He is indeed a bright talent destined to shine. Ravi, Udy, Alakesh all excelled in their own space. The high point of the movie for me was the Mon Boi Jai song. Perfectly timed, meaningful lyrics and incredibly catchy.

Apart from the stellar performance of entire cast, the story has managed to capture the essence of life in a metro at present day. A coming of age movie, it is indeed relatable for everyone. Light hearted romcom banter between Naaz-Udy, the darker story of Urmila and captive-marriage life of Barasha all complemented the plot. The only thing I missed was more scenes on the lives of the characters.

First Local Utpaat, then Emuthi Puthi and now Guwahati Diaries. All three films has explored different genres respectively and finally I can say that a new wave of Assamese cinema has statred.

Come to Guwahati Diaries. First of all, a must watch. A Guwahati that you may familiar with but never captured in storytelling though. A Guwahati that is dark. A Guwahati which will make you lonely. A Guwahati which will give you another chance. A Guwahati where you can dream. One of the best ending scenes in Assamese cinema. A fast paced film, just like the materialistic urban life. Well wriiten, cleaver direction. Good to see realistic dialouges has taken place in Assamese cinema, few dialouges will really touch your heart and mind at the same time.

Let's talk about perfomences. Growing up watching Barsha Rani Bishaya's film and this is the first film where I can see her potential as a character artist. I love her acting through out the whole movie. This film will surely change her image as an actress and take her to a next level. Urmila Mahanta always does justice with her characters. Both Barsha and Urmila are the show stealer. They didn't share the screen together, which I find interesting about the plot. Watched Bokul few days back and I must say Udayan Duarah is a good actor. He is the central character of the movie, and he has done a great job. Naaz Sultana is promoising, needs more homework though. Hemanta Debnath is the most amazing actor through out the film. Ranjeev Lal Barua is a good actor, I don't know why he hasn't worked so much yet. Kamal Lochan's character is nice, breaking his streotype angry young man look and tries something new. I think Arghadeep carries the same expression from Aamis and Emuthi Puthi. He needs to take acting more seriously. I would want to see some another guy on the character of Mayur rather than him. But the cliamx scene, when he reveals his identity, is one of the good sequences of the movie.

The cinematography is well done, specially the bar sequences. Framings could be better though. Screenplay can be more tight, but it's decent though. Editing can be better for sure. No sign of prouction design as we see no significant things on Udayan's room to establish him as a director. The colour grading is international level. Never seen such a cool balance of YCB in Asdsamese films. Moreover, this film is a good film. It's like black coffee. You don't fond of it with only one try. Hope to see it on OTT very soon. All the best ot the team. I hope you guys will bring more urban dramas to us. Thanks.

"Guwahati Diaries" is a creatively bold attempt to explore the urban relationships. As the name suggest, all major characters are pages of the diary - some gets torned away, or some gets new words of hope. The city is watching everything - silently, patiently. I don't usually watch mainstream assamese cinema - as it's not up to the mark and has no soul in it. But Emuthi Puthi and Guwahati Diaries take me back to watch Asaamese cinema and honestly after watching these two films - I am proud of what Assamese mainstream films are capable of. Guwahati Diaries has a soul, has it's own language. The visuals are vibrant, colourful but the stories we are seeing, are grey, dark. That's one of the most beautiful aspect of this movie. Diaouges are feel so real,so connected as it based on the urban class of Guwahati. It has a phillosophical aspect, specially after the interval. Though there are some lack in the storytelling, the honesty of the writers clearly can be seen on the screen. That is important. No art is perfect. This film attemps something that we all witnessed in our life, specially in Guwahati. The film talks about different types of relationship and the characters are dealing with it. This film may be a reality check for someone; specially for the people who come to the city from a small town and gets the ultimate freedom in their life. MISTAKE is used as a good metaphor in the movie and it turns out too good. We all do mistakes right! Very cleaver writing, very cleaver direction.

This may be the best film of Barsha Rani Bishaya. I never knew Ojantrik guy, Udayan Duarah, is such a natural actor. He has a bright future in this indrustry. Argha, somehow, has a lot of similar to his role in Aamis but this is more natural. Urmila Mahanta is the star of the movie, I must say. Ranjeev Lal Baruah has the best expressions though. Editing could be a little better, as well as sound. Who has done the Di, take a bow!! The ending poetry is the metaphor to the whole film, the writer and the director plays pretty good with that. So this is the first movie of it's kind,coming out of Assam may be!

Love, lust, lies, and betrayal are explored in their most natural and unadulterated of forms in filmmaker Prasant Saikia's 'Guwahati Diaries' - a multi-narrative about seven lives in the city that are interconnected to form three engaging storylines in one meeting place - the modern city. In an endearing mix of joys and sorrows of these characters surviving and suffering in the backdrop of the city lights amidst their possible and impossible dreams, we also discover a city that has embraced within its shadows, the deep and painful rumination of life.

There are two women-one waiting for her perfect marriage, and the other who is gradually giving up on the idea of making things perfect with a husband that offers her no closure - then there is the struggle of an actor and a musician, both seeking acceptance in its different forms in their personal as well as social lives, and an aspiring filmmaker struggling to get his first film off the ground, and a man who always seems to be wanting more.

The film is beautifully shot with the different structures of Guwahati always in the background almost standing as passive witnesses to the emotional exchanges between the characters. Or observing the emotions trapped between the towering heights of the city from all the sides. However, it seemed as though the editing couldn't follow the same line of focus as the mood of the scenes that was called for. There were a few - very difficult sharp cuts - that jarringly puts the audience across two contrasting mood sets without a successful transition. Mention should be made of two scenes, the first of which ends with Ravi yelling at his wife before abruptly cutting to Udy the following morning. Even the cutaway shots of the night cityscape scream of repetitiveness after a point. In short, the transitions weren't particularly clean in the first half of the film.

In 'Guwahati Diaries', the music or sometimes the absence of it adequately captures the soul of a city with lives that are uncertainly at the brink of collapse. Actor Urmila Mahanta's character (Jennifer) is layered to depths and she offers the strongest performance in the movie. Barsha Rani Bishaya excels in her sequences with the composed characterization of Arghadeep Barua's Mayur, despite the fact that the character arc of Darshana hovers very close to melodrama. It is Hemanta Debnath on the other hand, who very ably shoulders a ruthless obsession with an almost uncaring attitude to the emotions of those around in the character of Alkesh. Udayan Duarah (Udy) and Naaz Sultana's (Nilakshi) performances perfectly reflects the confusion of the two urban sweethearts who are now unconfident of the new steps they might want to take together in their shared life.

The movie's subtle balance of the dominating darkness and the deepest ambitions, the quite temptations and the desperate desires and also hope and despair can resonate beyond the geographic barriers of a city but it could have further benefitted from a little more sophistication in its storytelling. There was enough scope for the graphs of all the three acts to go higher in terms of its structure, conflict and characterization so that its convergence for the falling action felt more impactful.

For instance, it is the life of only one of the partner's of a pair that was being explored. If we are with Udy through the challenges of filming a short film, we are unaware of Nilakshi's existence outside of their house. Similar to how Darshana's problematic life is revealed to us, but Ravi's struggles outside of his marriage are unknown to us. And in a same way, we are very stranger to Alkesh beyond his toxic relationship with Jennifer. Even Ravi's transformation at the end of the movie felt flimsy because it was brought about by an external force and not enough time was dedicated for the internalization to take place to feel like his decisions were truly coming from within.

Director Prasant Saikia never allows for the sentimentalist aspects of his stories to overflow while keeping his approach to relationships grounded. His progressive take on acceptance and modern love from young lovers to couples with midlife crisis and unhappy marriages and yearnings for love and forgiveness have been decently accomplished but however, they seem to have come about a bit lacking on the front of little finesse in detail and depth, especially with characters like Ravi, Udy and even Alkesh to some extent. Even more focus on the hyperlinked nature of characters in such genre of anthologies could have been worked in favor of making the plot denser and characters more layered. To note, 'Guwahati Diaries' also shares a few interesting but reversed parallels with Anurag Basu's 'Life in a Metro' which in turn was also ripped off from 'The Apartment' (1960) and 'Brief Encounter' (1945) and Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Magnolia' (1999).